Card holder



CARD HOLDER www Filed OGt. 9, .1935

Patented Apr. 7, 1936 PATENT oFFicE CARD HOLDER Percival Theus, Beaufort, S. C.

Application October 9, 1935, Serial No. 44,303

2 Claims.

'I'his invention relates to card holders of the type employed in playing games, such as duplicate bridge, duplicate whist, etc., in which a plurality of hands of cards are passed from one player to another.

The general idea of such card holders is not novel, it being common to provide a quadrilateral holder having a slot in each of its lateral faces for the reception of a hand of cards. It is customary for the several hands to be identified by symbols such, for example, as N. E. S. W., standing for North, East, South and West.

The present invention has for its principal object the provision of an improved card holder comprising a stack fabricated from identical compartment elements, suitably united. This greatly simplifies the mode of manufacturing, and minimizes the cost of manufacture.

Another object of the invention is to improve the construction of the card holder, providing slideways for the cards, minimizing friction and easing the withdrawal of the cards from the card holder.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a truss construction in the manufacture of the units, producing great rigidity of the peripheral portion of the holder, permitting the use of comparatively light stock.

Another object of the invention is to provide a card holder of the type described, which will be rigid in its peripheral parts so that the cross sectional shape of the mouths of the slots is fully maintained, assuring the easy introduction of the hands of cards into the holder, the middle of the holder is sufficiently flexible to be pushed inwardly by light pressure of the thumb and foreiinger on the opposite faces of the holder, thus making it possible to hold the cards firmly in place While passing the holder from one player to another.

Still another object of the invention relates to the spiral arrangement of the slots around the lateral sides of the holder so that the identity of the hands can be ascertained from their position alone Without necessitating the employment of any identifying indicia on the face of the card holder.

Other objects of the invention will appear as the following description of a preferred and practical embodiment thereof proceeds.

In the drawing which accompanies and forms a part of the following specification and throughout the several figures of which the same characters of reference have been employed to designate identical parts:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a card holder embodying the principles of the invention;

Figure 2 is an end view;

Figure 3 is a horizontal section taken along the line 3 3 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a plan view of the blank from which one of the compartment elements is fabricated; and

Figure 5 is a perspective view of the compartment element partly unfolded and particularly broken away to reveal the details of its construction.

Referring now in detail to the several figures, the numeral I represents the card holder which in its preferred form is rectangular as shown and having in its respective side faces slots 2, see Figure 2, and the presence of which is indicated in Figure l by the extending hands of cards d, b, c and al.

The card holder is preferably made of four compartment elements 3, identical as to shape stacked congruently as shown in Figure 3, and oriented with the slots 2 facing in the four directions. Preferably, the slots are arranged at progressively decreasing levels as'shown in Figure 2 around the perimeter of the card holder determining a spiral arrangement of the hands of cards so that the identity of each hand may be ascertained or determined by the position of the hand heightwise of the card holder, avoiding the necessity of the face of the card holder being marked to indicate the identity of the hands.

Figures 4, 5, and 6 shows that each compartment unit is composed of an enveloping member 4, Figure 4, suitably scored so as to form when folded broad top and bottom faces 5 and 6, thin side and back faces 'I and 8, leaving the front open at 9 and the side faces having flaps II) and II which form card slideways in the nished unit.

The compartment element 3 is flanked on each side by a girder member I I consisting of aninner channel member I2 and pasted longitudinally around said channel member is a strip I3. The girderconstruction thus formed is pasted to the top 5 of the enveloping member 4 on each side thereof leaving a middle portion I4 for the reception of the hand of cards. The fiaps Il] and II are then pasted down upon the girder members and are of such width as to project beyond said girder members forming the slideways I5 and I6, Figure 3. It is obvious that the hands of cards rest on the slideways I5 and I6, and due to the greater Width of the slots 2 in the middle of the compartment elements, it is obvious that the cards are contacted by the walls of the compartment elements only where the slots are narrowest, that is to say, between the slideways and the top face 5.

The bottom 6 is pasted down upon the flaps l 0 and il, thus completing the compartment unit. The top of one unit is pasted to the bottom of the next unit above and thus the stack of units is built up into a complete card holder.

Figure 3 shows that the lateral edges of the card holder in the middle are built up of two of the girder members l I alternating with two of the slots 2, and Figure 1 indicates in broken lines that at the corners the girder members intersect in alternation so that the corner portions are built up entirely of girder members, thus ensuring great strength and rigidity to the peripheral parts of the card holder, particularly at the corners. This construction permits the use of relatively light stock and at the same time maintains the full cross sectional shape of the mouths of the slots 2 so that they are always in condition to receive the hands of cards freely. It will be obvious however that the girder construction does not extend to the middle of the card holder which is therefore quite exible and a slight pressure of the thumb and nger against the top and bottom faces of the card holder adjacent the middle thereof is sufficient to constrict the several compartments sufficiently to frictionally prevent the hands of cards from slipping out.

It is of course obvious that the compartment units are not confined by the invention to any particular shape, but that they may be made of any shape. It is further to be understood that any desired number of compartment units may be assembled into a single stack or card holder and that the details of construction as illustrated and described are merely by way of example and not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. Card holder comprising a relatively flat parallelepipedal body comprising a stack of substantially identical compartment units arranged juxtapositionally and united, said units each having a slot forming the open end of a compartment, said units being arranged with the slots opening in the four sides of the card holder, each unit being formed from a folded blank having top and bottom faces, side and back faces and aps forming folded extensions of said side faces, girder members at the sides of said unit between the top and bottom faces of said blank, said girder member comprising outwardly facing channels having their open ends abutting the side faces of said blank, and strips longitudinally encompassing said channels, said flaps being of greater width than said girder members constituting ledges, forming slideways for a hand of cards when introduced into or Withdrawn from the compartments formed between said girder members.

2. Card holder comprising a relatively flat parallelepipedal body comprising a stack of substantially identical compartment units arranged juxtapositionally and united, said units each having a. slot forming the open end of a compartment, said units being arranged with the slots opening in the four sides of the card holder, each unit being formed from a folded blank having top and bottom faces, side and back faces and flaps forming folded extensions of said side faces, girder members at the sides of said unit between the top and bottom faces of said blank, said naps being of greater Width than said girder members constituting ledges forming slideways for a hand of cards when introduced into or withdrawn from the compartments formed between said girder members.

PERCIVAL THEUS. 

